GERMAN LOSSES.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1916, Page 4

GERMAN LOSSES.

The other day Berlin gave to the world a statement of the casualties admitted by the enemy for the month of August and for the whole period of the war i:p to the end of that month. The total of kilied, wounded, and missing for August was given as 240,1)5"; and for the war at 3,370,13)'. The latter number is made up as follows:—Killed, 832,103; wounded, 2,144,202; missing, 399,709. German statements are notoriously unreliable, those regarding their losses being remarkably so. There is every reason to believe that the latest figures do not represent anything like the enemy's actual losses, Germany, of course, is not going to admit the position of its man power, if it can help it. In the first place the information would be useful to the Entente and prove damaging to the neutrals, and might conceivably seriously disturb the German people. But the Allies no doubt have a shrewd idea of the extent of the enemy losses. Last February Mr. Hilaire Belloc made an elaborate study of the German losses up to the end of 101"), and he was able to checik the official returns by means of certain data that he secured from the French and British military authorities. These enabled him to ascertain by reai soiling that shows no weakness that at that time the number of dead was at the very least one million, when the Germans themselves admitted only 030,000. Working along similar lines, he established the number of wounded permanently disabled at 1,000,000, and the missing at 400,000. These figures, however, were not so satisfactorily established as the total of killed. :Perhaps the simplest method of correcting the present German figures is to increase the number of dead in the same proportion as was found necessary by Mr. Belloc, which gives a total of 1,277,000. The wounded permanently out of action is at least 160 per cent, of the number of dead; which gives well over two millions, and the German figure may stand, though there is good reason to suspect that it is well under the mark. We may also suspect the total of missing, for the Germans have habitually made their missing total far below the truth, and probably 450,000 could not 'be far. off the real number. In addition, an allowance must ■ be made for men disabled by sickness. On Mr. Belloe's working, this total was already 000,000 by last December, and on a time basis alone would be about 900,000 by now. But as his figure included two winters, and the losses since have been mainly in the summer, the total

may bo onllivl 750,000. Thou there are always at least -I0!>,o::0 to be'regarded as permanently out of action, to covey the ''floating" mass of men, >itk anil wounded, who are in hospital and convalescent. This gives a grand total of permanent war losses of just over 5,000,000. it is interesting to note that this figure U roughly four times the number of dead. According to .Mr. Belloe, a rough 'but reliable "rule of thumb" is to multiply the number of dead by four to find the total number of men out of action for good in any great army. Some of the Germans have a shrewd idea of their own losses. That they don't accept official statements is shown by a recently-published brochure circulated in Germany, by the late political editor of the Berlin Homing Post, in which he says: "fn informed circles the truth is known, and the (ierman people ought to know it. There are at least 1,250,000 dead, about 750.000 prisoners, deserters, and missing, and about 3,000,000 wounded, of whom about 1,000,000 are condemned to incurable mutilation. That is the bloody balance-sheet of war for Germany to-day. Concerning those sick wc are silent. Their number eludes all :omputation, but it is certainly enormous." These figures were arrived at in June or July, and since then, of course, the figures have been greatly swelled by the constant losses during the heavy offensive operations of the Allies. Mr. Helloes rule of thmnb method is therefore not far astray. It can safely be said that over five millions of Germans are out of action. It used to be said that no nation could sojul forward more than ten per cent, of its population and exist, but increase the number to fifteen [>er cent, and Germany could then only find a little over ten million men, of whom, it is shown, half are already permanently out of action. The conditions of fighting are now so severe and the mortality so high, that it is a physical impossibility for Germany to stand up to the battering she is now receiving on all sides for much more than another year. There is, indeed, every indication that the Allies have now a death-grip on the Hun's throat, and every day will see it tightened.